A, The Third Sunday of Easter - Psalm 116 "Resurrection from the Self"

Psalm 116:1–19 (ESV) I love the Lord, because he has heard my voice and my pleas for mercy. Because he inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live. The snares of death encompassed me; the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me; I suffered distress and anguish. Then I called on the name of the Lord: “O Lord, I pray, deliver my soul!” Gracious is the Lord, and righteous; our God is merciful. The Lord preserves the simple; when I was brought low, he saved me. Return, O my soul, to your rest; for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you. For you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling; I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living. I believed, even when I spoke: “I am greatly afflicted”; I said in my alarm, “All mankind are liars.” What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits to me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord, I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. O Lord, I am your servant; I am your servant, the son of your maidservant. You have loosed my bonds. I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving and call on the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people, in the courts of the house of the Lord, in your midst, O Jerusalem. Praise the Lord!

The picture of two disciples, Cleopas and the other unnamed, standing on the road to Emmaus discussing the Resurrection Day’s events is a good picture of our human condition. These two men are completely turned in on themselves. They are completely puzzled by the reports of Jesus’ resurrection in the wake of his crucifixion three days earlier.

Their hopes seemed dashed as they report to the unrecognised, resurrected Jesus.  This Jesus was to be the redeemer of Israel, they lament, and now there’s a confusing report from the women who say they saw two angels at the tomb and that Jesus was alive.

The two on the road to Emmaus go over and over the events, round and round in circles much like us today when something has happened and the airways, social media, influencers, and commentators fill one’s ears with information built on, truths, half-truths, gossip, and Chinese whispers.  The longer the story is out there moving from mouth to mouth, the greater the embellishments, the greater the speculation, the greater the misinformation!

Notice that the discussion between the two left them looking sad.  Their conversation left them without hope.  So turned in on themselves, they were kept from recognising Jesus.  I reckon Jesus could walk past me most of the time and I would not notice him.  It’s not that Jesus is unnoticeable, but rather it’s my inability to notice anything much other than my own self-centredness.

Like the two on the road to Emmaus, humanity in the presence of God, has the uncanny ability to make it all about the self, so curved in on ourselves that we are!  It was not so much that Jesus had died, that there were angels at the empty tomb, but how hearing these things turned them in on themselves!  The meeting on the road to Emmaus shows us how much we need God to daily bring us out of ourselves, from our thoughts, words and worries within, to be outward looking in the place where God has put each of us!

We need Jesus Christ to bring us out of ourselves into an outward looking posture that sees both him and the people we are called to serve in his name.  Unless this occurs and continues to daily occur, we become no different to the Emmaus men before Jesus opened the word of God to them and revealed himself in the breaking of the bread.

Unless Jesus does this work of resurrecting us from ourselves, we act in just the same way as the Jews did throughout the history of God meeting with them in the temple.  Israel became fixated on the temple rather than on him who gave them the temple through his word.  They became more concerned about keeping the law than about the access gained to God’s mercy through the rituals of the law.

What is the purpose of being a Christian?  If you had to make a defence for your faith, what would you say?

Now stop! I want you to notice what just happened in you when you heard these questions?  When someone asks you why you are a Christian, or why you go to church on a Sunday, how do you respond? Do you respond?  Or do you just freeze up, go blank, and don’t know what to say?  How much worse is it when someone sets out to prove your Christianity wrong, or tries to ridicule you or shame you for your Christian beliefs? Does your defence of the faith fall short?

If it does it’s because you’re like the two on the road to Emmaus.  You’re looking within for the faith to answer or understand.  And looking within fails every time!  Just as the Jews failed to find God even when God was present in the temple,  just as we do today when we know the bible as a book of biblical facts, without letting it function as the sole source of faith.  In other words, Christianity just becomes a transaction to make the individual impersonal, cold and clinical. 

Some might claim that faith is personal, having undergone a lifetime of conditioning by the copout that “Jesus is my personal saviour!”  Yes!  What Jesus did for you was very personal for him, but it was a very public act for you and me!  Many hide behind Jesus as a personal saviour, that Jesus died on the cross, rather than allowing him to function as the public Saviour, who died on the cross, “for me”!

It’s when we come to testifying that Jesus died on the cross, for me, that we begin to arrive at the need to allow true Christianity to take effect within.  It changes us from being like the two disciples on the road to Emmaus to the Apostles who stood with Peter at Pentecost to publicly declare Jesus Christ risen from the dead, in the face of the Jews who put him to death. 

Jesus challenges you just as he did the two on the road to Emmaus, saying, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!” (Luke 24:25 ESV) He leads us from within ourselves and the confusion and quickness of the world to his word when we allow the Holy Spirit to help me, for me!

God sent Jesus to resurrect the Jew from themselves.  Jesus became the new Adam to save humanity from itself­—to resurrect you from yourself!  Why?  It’s not to cleanse the slate so we become good people; it’s much more than that!  It’s to make us holy so we can be with God forever. 

The reality of Christianity, the reality of the cross, the reality of God’s word is best summed up in Revelation chapter twenty-one verse three, “And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.’”(Revelation 21:3 ESV)

Psalm 116 set down for today, the Third Sunday in Easter, is the reality of those who tarry here in this existence of life and death.  As is heard at a funeral service, “in the midst of life we are in death”, but the greater reality proclaimed by the Psalmist is: “In the midst of death we are in life!”

We who look inwardly to ourselves remain in death, but those whose eyes are  opened to the reality of dwelling with God, covered with the blood of Jesus’ death and resurrection, live face to face in the midst of life eternal, face to face worshipping God in his glory.  That’s what being a Christian is all about!  That’s what the gospel of Jesus’ death and resurrection is all about!  That’s what the temple in the Old Testament was all about!  God with man was broken at Eden but was put right by Jesus our Immanuel (God with us). Indeed, our humanity is continuing to be put right in the calling, gathering, enlightening, and sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit, who brings us into holy fellowship with God and each other through the blood of Jesus.

Psalm 116 speaks of our human reality but does not leave us in it.  Instead, it reveals the reality of our salvation despite affliction and the knowledge that I with all humankind, are liars; that is, we are full of deception, disappointments, and cannot make good with God.  But Jesus has made good what we never could. 

Therefore, despite the deadliness of my humanity, the death of his saints, is precious in the sight of the Lord!

God has saved you and me so we can be with him in his holy presence.  Jesus has been raised from the dead, so like the two on the road to Emmaus, we too might be resurrected in his resurrection.

Therefore, call on the name of the Lord; pray that he continues to deliver your soul!  Call on the name of the Lord; life up the cup of his salvation!  Call on the name of the Lord; offer to him the sacrifice of thanksgiving! 

We are in God’s presence, he hears your voice and your pleas for mercy, therefore, continue to call on him as long as you live, Amen.

BIBLE STUDY: Resurrection from the Self
Psalm 116 & The Road to Emmaus
“From Inward Curvature to Resurrected Living”

 INTRODUCTION

Psalm 116 and the Emmaus story (Luke 24:13–35) both reveal the deep emotional reality of life with God. They show us people who are distressed, confused, inward‑curved, and overwhelmed — and a God who hears, draws near, delivers, and opens eyes.

This study invites us to notice our own inwardness, to see God’s outward rescue, and to walk in the resurrected life the Holy Spirit gives through Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection.

1. OBSERVATION — What do you see?

Read Psalm 116 and Luke 24:13–35.

1.     What emotions does the psalmist express in Psalm 116?

2.     Which emotions dominate the first half of the psalm?
What words or phrases show this?

3.     Which emotions dominate the second half of the psalm?
How does the tone shift?

4.     In Luke 24, what emotions do the two disciples show on the road to Emmaus?

5.     What emotional similarities do you see between the psalmist and the Emmaus disciples?

6.     What emotional differences do you see?

7. What do you notice about how God responds to these emotions in both passages?

 2. INTERPRETATION — What does God seek to do with you through his Word?

1.     What does the psalmist’s distress, anguish, and fear reveal about the human condition?

2.     What does God’s response — hearing, inclining His ear, delivering — reveal about His character?

3.     How does the emotional shift from distress → rest reflect the movement from death → life?

4.     What does the sadness and confusion of the Emmaus disciples reveal about how easily we become inward‑focused?

5.     Why do you think the disciples could not recognise Jesus at first?

6.     What does Jesus’ response — drawing near, listening, opening Scripture — reveal about how God meets people in confusion?

7.     How do both passages show that God must act first before we can see clearly or respond faithfully?

8. What does this teach us about the nature of faith — especially the difference between “looking within” and “receiving from God”?

 3. APPLICATION — What’s the Holy Spirit teaching about yourself and God?

1.     Where do you see yourself in the emotions of Psalm 116 or the Emmaus disciples?

2.     When you face distress or confusion, what is your usual instinct — to look inward or to call on the Lord?

3.     Psalm 116 shows a God who is present, who hears, inclines His ear, and delivers. How does this challenge or comfort you?  Your current prayer life?

4.     Where might self‑absorption or inward focus keep you from noticing Christ’s presence?

5.     Jesus opened the Scriptures before He opened their eyes.
What does this teach you about how God forms faith in you?

6.     The psalmist responds with thanksgiving, vows, and public worship. What might a concrete response of thanksgiving look like in your life this week?

7.     Today’s sermon emphasised that Christianity is not merely personal but public. Where, or how, might God be calling you to speak or act publicly in faith?

8. What is one inward‑curved habit God may be calling you to release? What is one outward‑looking practice He may be calling you to begin?

 CLOSING PRAYER

Lord Jesus Christ, you draw near to us in our confusion, our distress, and our inwardness. You open the Scriptures, open our eyes, and open our hearts. You have given us the Holy Spirit to deliver us from ourselves. Let your Holy Spirit turn us outward to see You, to love others, and to walk in the land of the living. Fill us with your Holy Spirit to teach us to call on Your name, to lift the cup of salvation, and to offer the sacrifice of thanksgiving. Remind us that we are in Your holy presence all our days. Amen.

A, The Resurrection of our Lord, Easter Sunday - Colossians 3:1–4 "Living in Transitory Times"

Colossians 3:1–4 (ESV) If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

The Early Church referred to Easter Sunday or the Day of Jesus’ Resurrection as the “Eighth Day”!  The resurrection of our Lord on the first day of the week, is a new eternal day, the eighth day for those who believe in him. Many were baptised on the Easter Resurrection anniversary, celebrating the rebirth of an eternal re-creation through Jesus Christ’s resurrection.  Therefore, many baptismal fonts and pools were eight-sided, as a reminder of the eternal eighth day.   Holy Baptism  into Jesus’ death and resurrection is the eternal dawn through which the old seven days of creation have been reborn.

The symbol is simple: turn the number eight on its side and you see the sign of eternity “∞”. Every Sunday is a weekly Easter, a weekly eighth day, a weekly reminder that through Christ’s holy and precious blood the Holy Spirit calls, gathers, and enlightens God’s children. In Christ’s sinless perfection, the angel of eternal death passes over us. Jesus’ victory over sin and death shields us, and the Spirit continues to sanctify us in that holiness.

But, like all those who’ve gone before us we also live in the old seven day week.  We live in transitory times between Eden and Paradise—we stand between what was broken and what will be restored.  Today, Easter Sunday, we celebrate the Resurrection, the freedom from death, the forgiveness of sin, the “Cross-road” and rebirth of creation through Christ, who was pushed through death so we might be reborn into his eternal creation.

Yet, creation still groans under the old seven day week.  Paul reminds us in his letter to the Romans that, “we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.” (Romans 8:22–23 ESV)

We who believe in Christ and not in ourselves look forward with eternal reassurance trusting in things above.  Yet, we wait for the full adoption and  redemption of our bodies. These are bodies burdened with being built in the old seven day week on earth. 

On this first day of what seems to be another  burdensome week, it’s hard to see that our life is hidden with Christ in God, as God goes with us into the next seven days of suspense and uncertainty.

What appears for us in Christ is a paradox, a seeming contradiction between the worldly reality of the old repetitive seven day week and the new eighth day that points us to Christ, his resurrection, and patiently waiting for our resurrection to finally occur!  But it’s not the only paradox, or contradiction that has occurred.  And the signs of this are all around us if we take into consideration what’s been going on over the last century!

A parishioner who lived nearly a century once reflected that each generation, shaped by the Depression and two world wars, tried to give the next “a better life”. But in seeking comfort, we often turned from the eighth‑day paradox of resurrection to the pleasure paradox of this world. In seeking something “better”, we set our minds on earthly things rather than on Christ above. In this paradox of pleasure humanity continues to seek its glory in the darkness and sin of the seven-day week.  The shift from Christ to comfort is not without consequence.

This shift has been growing for more than a century. When we abandon this Christ‑centred teaching, when any part of Christendom trades the eighth day for the seven‑day pursuit of pleasure, something vital is lost.

If we truly believe that the Lutheran confession of Law and Gospel is the clearest expression of God’s Word and his will, then it is not only a blessing for Lutherans — it’s a gift for Christendom and for the world.  If we believe this, this Christ-centred teaching must be necessary for the survival of a broken fragile worldly ecosystem.

So, we must ask ourselves:

What does the world lose when the church seeks earthly glory?

What happens to the world when the life raised with Christ is pushed aside by us individually or as a community?

What occurs when the Holy Spirit’s calling, gathering, and enlightening is resisted in favour of worldly pressures?

A third paradox has been steadily snowballing since we’ve turned from the eighth day paradox of the Resurrection back to the pleasure paradox of seeking something apparently “better” in this life.

History shows the pattern, so too does the bible! When humanity seeks freedom apart from God, a third paradox appears! God withdraws his presence from his people and without his protection the world grows darker. The twentieth century saw this paradox under Hitler and Stalin.

Today we see similar patterns in the messianic politics of Trump and Putin, and in the retaliatory disobedience of individuals and nations across the globe. These are not merely unconnected social or geopolitical problems. They are symptoms of a deeper spiritual disobedience — a world chasing the seven‑day cycle while rejecting the eighth‑day Christ.

Today we can stand, look, and learn from the past.  We can see and learn from our sins now forgiven in the past, to direct us in the future.  We can see the escalating fever, within us, in the world, and in the deep groaning of creation to learn that while we seek greater freedoms in and from this life, God withdraws! Rather than becoming better, everything gets worse!  Such is this third paradox!

So again, we ask ourselves:

How is our world suffering at the hands of Christianity’s disobedience? 

What about the Lutheran Church’s disobedience towards its Christ-centred teaching? 

What are the consequences for the Lutheran Church and the communities in which it lives when seeking the seven-day week for the self rather than seeking the kingdom of God and his eternal eighth day?

If we hold that our Lutheran teaching is true, what happens when the calling, gathering, and enlightening work of the Holy Spirit is rejected?

What does the word of God say when Jews or Gentiles resisted and rejected God’s word?

So, we cry out to the Lord, “Lord Jesus, save us from being eternally wounded!”

All are called to repentance through Christ’s suffering and death.  All individuals are called to put the old self to death and be raised!  No one is exempt from being called to repentance. No one can be raised up in Christ’s resurrection without the Holy Spirit working repentance within. 

Worldly struggles today are massive.  Neither diplomacy nor bombs will heal what we have broken. The free‑flowing oil through the Strait of Hormuz will not stabilise the world any more than the end of Covid lockdowns healed our anxieties. The only remedy is repentance — a return to the things above, where Christ is, our peace.

Jesus himself trusted the Father through his death and resurrection. The Holy Spirit now calls us to the same, and to submit once again to God’s word rather than our own words, opinions, and thoughts, or the thoughts, opinions, and words of someone we’ve allowed to become our messiah on social media! 

Thankfully there is no partiality with God!  All people are called to repentance. All are called to die and rise with Christ. All Christians are called daily to allow the Holy Spirit to put to death the sins of our seven-day cycle and trust in the resurrection on the eighth day.

The Church — Lutheran and otherwise — is called again to stand in the eighth‑day light of Christ, trusting that when he appears, we also will appear with him in glory.

Amen.

 

Sermon Summary: “Living in Transitory Times”

Colossians 3:1–4 proclaims that those who have been raised with Christ now belong to a new reality — the life “hidden with Christ in God.” The Early Church called Easter the Eighth Day, the dawn of God’s eternal new creation breaking into the old seven‑day world. Baptism joins believers to this eternal day, marking them as participants in Christ’s resurrection even as they still live within the burdens and groaning of the old creation.

Yet we inhabit a paradox. We celebrate the Resurrection while still walking through a world marked by decay, sin, and uncertainty. Creation groans, and we groan with it, longing for the redemption of our bodies. The tension between the old seven‑day world and the eternal eighth‑day life is not merely philosophical — it is visible in history, culture, and the spiritual condition of humanity.

Across the last century, generations seeking “a better life” often traded the eighth‑day hope for the seven‑day pursuit of comfort and pleasure. When the Church shifts its gaze from Christ above to earthly glory, something essential is lost. When Law and Gospel — the heart of Lutheran, Christ‑centred teaching — is neglected, the world is deprived of the very truth that sustains it.

History shows that when humanity seeks freedom apart from God, God withdraws His protection and the world darkens. The horrors of the twentieth century and the messianic politics of today are not merely geopolitical crises but symptoms of deeper spiritual disobedience — a world rejecting the eighth‑day Christ for the seven‑day self.

The remedy is not diplomacy, power, or prosperity. The only remedy is repentance — a return to the things above, where Christ is. All are called to die and rise with Christ daily, to let the Spirit put to death the old self, and to stand again in the eighth‑day light of the Resurrection. The Church is called to trust that when Christ appears, we also will appear with Him in glory.

 Reflection Questions for Personal or Group Study

1. The Eighth Day & Our Identity

•      Where in your life do you most feel the tension between the “old seven‑day world” and the “eighth‑day” life you have in Christ?

•      How does remembering your baptism help you live with confidence in this tension?

2. Setting Our Minds on Things Above

•      What are the “earthly things” that most easily distract you from Christ?

•      What practices help you re‑orient your mind toward “things above”?

3. The Paradox of Comfort

•      In what ways has the pursuit of comfort or “a better life” shaped your faith, for good or for ill?

•      How might the Church today be tempted to trade the eighth‑day hope for seven‑day pleasures?

4. The Church’s Calling in a Groaning World

•      What does the world lose when the Church seeks earthly glory instead of Christ’s glory?

•      How can your congregation bear clearer witness to Law and Gospel in a culture chasing self‑made freedom?

5. Repentance as the Only Remedy

•      Where is the Holy Spirit calling you to repentance — personally, communally, or culturally?

•      How does repentance restore your vision of Christ as your life, your peace, and your future?

6. Living Toward the Appearing of Christ

•      What does it mean for you that “your life is hidden with Christ in God”?

•      How does the promise that “you will appear with Him in glory” shape the way you face the coming week?